Skiing was excellent over the weekend at Osceola, in the Tug Hill region of New York State. All trails were rolled and tracked, and there were no rocks, bare spots, or open water. Rocks skis were unnecessary. It was really quite something for this point in the season.

There's still great skiing throughout the Tug Hill region and the Adirondacks. I skied Lapland yesterday and Osceola today. 2-3 ft. of snow, all trails were open and groomed at both areas. It's been unseasonably cold, but the strong March sun has made it a delight to be out. This week it may finally start to seem like spring skiing.

Very un-November conditions at Osceola today. It's been very cold all
week, which has helped firm up a nice
base. Everything on the south side except Malloy Rd. was rolled, and
there were no bare spots and just a few pebbles. The north side was
ungroomed but skiable, as long as you didn't mind working your way through
and around quite a few downed trees.

Conditions were generally fair to good, although I'm sure that has since changed.

It's a nice, small-to-medium-sized cross-country area, a Mom-and-Pop kind of place like Windblown in New Hampshire. Definitely worth a trip from Syracuse or Utica, and I'd recommend it even as a trip from Rochester or Albany.

Good trails, good grooming (still visible despite the current meltdown), good selection of rental equipment, good trail map. My only criticism is about the (largely missing) trail signage. Most but not all intersections have numbers which can be matched to the map, but there are very few signs that show the trail names.

My favorite trail is "Twist and Shout," and not just because of the name - although that is a great trail name.

I don't have a ton of experience at other Nordic centers but I was steered towards Osceola about 4 years ago. I have always enjoyed the place and the facility and the fact that there was always snow -- sometimes too much snow. Anyhow the proprietor, Hugh, is a good guy and seems to bust his butt getting the trails ready.

Hope to head up that way in two weeks to do the Winona Forest Tourathon (my first Nordic race) and then hit Osceola the following day. In the meantime, just patch skiing here in Southeast Pennsylvania -- the snow was great while it lasted.....

I skied at Osceola for two days last week (March 16-17, 2017). It's always been one of my favorite XC places. Particularly once Salmon Hills met its demise. At Osceola Hugh is a one-man army. I not quite sure how he gets it all done particularly since they had just gotten 20" of snow the day before.

On day one I skate skied. I stopped classic skiing well over 10 years ago when I finally got tired of applying kick wax with our highly variable local conditions down in the Southern Tier of NY. I had sold off all my classic gear and have been exclusively skating since. I got the itch for it again and thanks to Hugh's substantial inventory I was of outfitted with new classic gear in no time. This time around I went with a very decently performing no-wax setup. Hugh had me demo the the entire package in advance and I was pleasantly impressed with both the glide and the grip of contemporary upper mid-range waxless skis.